On the first day of Christmas, what could be better than gathering with friends and bringing joy to the world through your ringing? The holly and the ivy may well deck the halls as you ding-dong merrily on high, performing the traditional role of a bell ringer in summoning all within earshot to a service on Christmas Day. Here’s the experience of a small, local band.
Although in many Churches the popular ‘midnight mass’ is rather late to ring for, you may well have rung already at an early-evening carol service in the week before Christmas. Our band always makes a point of ringing at the afternoon Crib Service on Christmas Eve; this is where Christmas really starts! The Church is packed out with family, friends and neighbours as well as regular church members, so it’s a great opportunity to showcase bellringing, and an ideal way for younger children to hear the sound of the bells – interest sparked now may bear fruit later in the form of young recruits. This worked for our revived tower band in its first year: our wobbly Crib Service ringing snagged a couple of lapsed ringers whose teenage children then learned to ring with us, so every Christmas we celebrate that anniversary!
When you ring on Christmas morning it’s like a normal Sunday, only better: in our tower we ring half an hour later than usual – helpful if you went to the watch-night service – so there’s plenty of time for a special breakfast! If it’s a white Christmas, you get to make the first footprints in the snow and the best snowballs to bombard your friends. Meeting friends first thing also means you can discuss Christmas TV, compare notes on what you found in your stocking, and show off long-awaited presents. Our Church holds an informal audience-led carol service so everyone including ringers gets to wear their best/worst Christmas jumper and people are very relaxed! But even for a more formal service, everyone’s in a good mood; if you’re in a first-floor ringing chamber probably no-one will even know what you’re wearing – and you could get an angel’s-eye view of the congregation.
A fairly new band with few experienced ringers, might start off with a volley of good rounds before moving on to called changes to make sure everyone’s awake. You can then run through Plain Hunt, Grandsire and Bob Doubles, and maybe Bob Minor, depending on who’s available; sometimes ‘Three Blind Mice’, and Bob Minimus with one or two bells behind come in handy if you’re short of more advanced ringers. They might ring special Christmas-themed methods.
Whatever you ring, it’ll be appreciated: the glorious, resonant clamour of ringing down will subside to a murmur as people thank you for making Christmas so special; and lunch won’t be far off as you bask in that virtuous feeling of a job well done, realising too that Christmas makes ringing special.
If you really enjoyed ringing Christmas morning in, consider ringing on New Year too and tick off another challenge – ringing out the old and ringing in the new.
Do beware of any dangers to yourself and others if you’re wearing unfamiliar or unusual clothing. I’m imagining reindeer antlers over the eyes (a useful exercise?) or, more seriously, scarves or super-hero capes: wrapped up with a rope, these would present a very serious danger, so tuck them and any loose tinsel inside your top.
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